Introduction

Tezos is a blockchain employing an innovative on-chain governance model that makes it capable of amending its own rules without major disruption. In the space of only two weeks Tezos was able to raise an incredible $232 million. The success of the ICO was a testament to the vision of Tezos as a potential replacement for Ethereum. Tezos promises much of the same functionality as Ethereum but run with a fully decentralised and self-amending governance system.

What is Tezos?

Tezos has been in development since 2014 by Arthur and Kathleen Breitman. Prior to Arthur Breitman’s work on Tezos he was a quantitative analyst at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. One of the core aspects of Tezos is that it is a “self-amending cryptographic ledger.” What this means is that when someone buys Tezos they have a vote in the future direction of the digital currency. The scope for this governance by token holders is wide-ranging. It includes not only the funding measures undertaken by Tezos, but also its functionality.

One way to think of Tezos is that combines the smart contracts that Ethereum is notable for, with the decentralised governance principles of Dash. As with Ethereum, Tezos aims to be a platform on top of which other decentralised apps could be built.

Following its ICO Tezos was disrupted by a dispute between the Brietmans and Johann Gevers who was the President of the Tezos foundation. Tezos had been structured so the founding company called DLS (Dynamic Ledger Services) was separate from the Tezos Foundation which had collected the funds from the ICO. Gevers was president of the Tezos Foundation controlled the funds raised from the ICO. Gevers would not release those funds to DLS. Eventually, Gevers resigned from his position following an exit package of over $400,000. With this problem removed Tezos has regained its footing.

Where to buy Tezos

As one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, Tezos can be purchased on a wide range of cryptocurrency exchanges. These include:

How to Buy Tezos

In order to purchase TEZOS tokens, you first need to purchase ETH. Once you purchase ETH, you can then exchange it for TEZOS. For this example, we will explain how to purchase ETH on Coinbase, one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges.

Use the link here or click the image above to get $10 in Bitcoin when you purchase or sell your first $100.

Exchanges you shouldnt miss when you want to trade crypto

Why buy Tezos?

When considering whether to buy Tezos one important thing to understand is this isn’t simply another token. It is an entirely new cryptocurrency, which if successful could potentially be a replacement for Ethereum. That’s a huge opportunity. Consider that Tezos is currently the 19th most valued cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap with a valuation of $775 million. That is in itself no small valuation, but in comparison Ethereum is currently valued at 25x that price at $20 billion. If Tezos was to replace Ethereum the payoff could be huge for Tezos holders.

Of course, whether Tezos is able to realise those ambitions remains to be seen. It does however have some unique features which could enhance its chances of success. Among the most important of these is its on-chain governance and ability to self-amend. This directly addresses ones of the key challenges of other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum which are hard forks. When a cryptocurrency undertakes a hard fork, it is no longer backward compatible. If you do not choose to join the forked version of the digital currency, then you can no longer interact with that system. As was the case of Bitcoin and BitcoinCash a hard fork can be highly divisive among holders of that cryptocurrency.

Tezos solution to this is to allow the blockchain to upgraded without necessitated a hard fork. Instead it uses an iterative process of on-chain governance. In essence developers who want to upgrade the protocol submit a proposal, along with the compensation they want for their work. The Tezos community then assesses, test and critiques the proposal. Once tested Tezos token holders are able to vote whether the proposal should go forward. Upgrades that are approved via voting are initiated using a hot swap on the protocol.

How to sell Tezos

Tezos is a well-supported and directly exchangeable into the leading digital currencies. This includes Bitcoin, USD Tether and BitcoinCash. On some exchanges, such as Kraken, Tezos can be directly exchanged into USD fiat currency. In order to sell Tezos simply follow these steps:

Register an account at one of the cryptocurrency exchanges that trades Tezos listed earlier in this guide.

If the exchange supports either XTZ/EUR or XTZ/USD you can trade directly into fiat currency, then send the funds to your bank account. Otherwise exchange the XTZ into a digital currency like Bitcoin or BitcoinCash.

Transfer your Bitcoin or BitcoinCash to a platform like Coinbase and exchange for fiat currency. Send your fiat currency to your bank account.

Conclusion

Tezos may have had a rocky start following its ICO but this year it has regained its stride. The underlying concept of a self-amending cryptocurrency which could serve as a platform for decentralised apps is still highly promising. If Tezos is able to build on its current momentum it could be a vision that is realised.